? s 



^•57 



913 



THE ROSE 

2IAMES ^mxCCMB RHILET 





Class 


?B2 


1 n c- 


Book 


•p 


--' 


Gmm^ 


M' ^ 


^ • ■.: 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSrr. 




Decorated by 
Emily Hall Chamberlain 



The BobbS' Merrill Company 
publishers 



Copyright, 1883, 1887, 1888, 1890, 1891, 1892, 1894, 
1897, 1898, 1901. 1905, 1913 

by 
JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY 

Ail rights reserved 



©CI,A3G1804 




THE ROSE 




T tossed its head at 
the wooing breeze; 

And the sun, like 
a bashful swain. 



Beamed on it 

through the waving trees 



With 



a passion all in vain, — 



For my rose laughed 

in a crimson glee. 




m 



The humming-bird, 

like a courtier gay. 

Dipped down with 

a dalliant song. 

And twanged his wings 

through the roundelay 

Of love the whole day long : 

Yet my rose turned 

from his minstrelsy 

And hid in the leaves 

in wait for me. 




O*^^^ 



O^ 




The firefly came 

in the twilight dim 

My red, red rose to woo — 

Till quenched was the 

flame of love in him 

And the light of 

his lantern too. 

As my rose wept 

with dewdrops three 

And hid in the leaves 

in wait for me. 



^^^Sfif-t^,i£ 








s^^gssTrr^ 



And I said : I will cull 

my own sweet rose — 

Some day 1 w^ill claim as mine 

The priceless worth of 

the flower that knows 

No change, but a 

bloom divine — 



The bloom of a 

fadeless constancy 

That hides in the leaves 

in wait for me ! 






-r->"^a?;F^ fff^-rftWi^i 



Mi 







But time passed by 

in a strange disguise. 

And I marked it not, but lay 

In a lazy dream, 

with drowsy eyes, 

Till the summer slipped away. 

And a chill wind sang 

in a minor key: 



Where is the rose 

that waits for thee ? " 




I dream to-day, 

o'er a purple stain 

Of bloom on a withered stalk. 

Pelted down by the autumn rain 

In the dust of the garden- walk. 

That an Angel-rose 

in the world to be 

Will hide in the leaves 

in wait for me. 




EP 17 1913 



liliiillii. 

016 255 979 5 f 



